1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus which ejects ink droplets from nozzles to write a recording image such as characters on a recording medium, and more particularly to a structure of an ink supply channel for introducing ink from an ink storage tank to an ink-jet recording head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An ink-jet recording apparatus which ejects ink droplets from nozzle openings to print characters and images on a recording medium is provided with a filter plate between an ink tank and a recording head in order to eliminate dust particles and bubbles in ink.
However, as the number of nozzles openings provided in a recording head is increased to 64 and further to 128 for improving the resolution of printed images to permit a larger amount of ink to flow from the ink tank to the recording head, larger head losses are induced by the filter plate for preventing foreign substances from flowing into the recording head, whereby supply of ink to the recording head cannot catch up with an amount of ink consumed for recording.
To solve the problem as mentioned above, the opening area of the filter plate need be increased to reduce a fluid resistance of the filter plate. However, this resolution would give rise to another problem of causing an uneven flow of ink through the filter plate, stagnated bubbles, and eventually a degraded printing quality.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems mentioned above, and its object is to provide an ink-jet recording apparatus which is capable of maximally reducing a channel resistance and of uniformly passing ink through a whole filter plate.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording apparatus which is capable of reducing a mounting force required to mount a cartridge to the ink-jet recording apparatus.
To solve the problems mentioned above, the present invention provides an ink-jet recording apparatus comprises: an ink cartridge for storing ink; an inkjet recording head for ejecting the ink; an ink supply channel connecting the ink cartridge and the ink-jet recording head, the ink supply channel having a portion inclined in relation to the horizontal direction formed in the middle of the ink supply channel; and a filter plate placed so as to diagonally traverse the inclined portion.